Sunday, September 29, 2013

The minerals in our electronic devices have bankrolled unspeakable violence in the Congo.

By Jeffrey Gettleman

Photograph by Marcus Bleasdale

The first child soldier pops out of the bush clutching an AK-47 assault rifle in one hand and a handful of fresh marijuana buds in the other. The kid, probably 14 or 15, has this big, goofy, mischievous grin on his face, like he’s just stolen something—which he probably has—and he’s wearing a ladies’ wig with fake braids dangling down to his shoulders. Within seconds his posse materializes from the thick, green leaves all around us, about ten other heavily armed youngsters dressed in ratty camouflage and filthy T-shirts, dropping down from the sides of the jungle and blocking the red dirt road in front of us. Our little Toyota truck is suddenly swarmed and immobilized by a four-and-a-half-foot-tall army.........................

Friday, September 27, 2013

Bodies being buried after the August 21 chemical attack near Damascus (photo credit: AP/Shaam News Network)

A group of international war crimes experts is calling for the creation of a special tribunal in the Syrian capital to try any top-ranking officials, soldiers or rebels who may have committed atrocities during the country’s civil war.

Professor Michael Scharf of Case Western Reserve University, acting as spokesman, showed The Associated Press a copy of the draft statutes that have been quietly under development for nearly two years. They could serve as a template for such a tribunal after the civil war ends.

He said Friday that US diplomats also have copies of the 30-page document, and are sympathetic to the idea of a Syrian war crimes court.

“We believe it’s playing a role in closed-door discussions throughout the US government,” Scharf said.......

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Russian diplomacy has dramatically changed the trajectory of Western response to the Syria crisis and put the Kremlin at the center of international negotiations to control Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal. But the Russian government’s insistence that chemical weapons were used by rebel forces now places it on the fringes of a serious debate over what to do next to end the atrocities in that embattled country.

In his op-ed for the New York Times, President Putin made the case for pursuing diplomacy over military strikes in Syria. He also wrote that there is “every reason to believe” the attack was carried out by opposition forces to provoke a Western military intervention.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has continued to claim that the “obscure case of the August 21” attack was “clearly fabricated.” Last week in Damascus, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov announced that Russia would be analyzing new “evidence” from the Syrian government that exonerates their forces for the attack.

Syrian opposition forces are indeed responsible for serious crimes in their conduct of war, including attacks against civilians, summary executions, kidnappings, torture, and other abuses. They include extremist Islamist elements that should be of real concern. But they are not responsible for the August 21 chemical weapons attack, and a review of the evidence demonstrates that.

The United Nations inspection team remains the only independent group to have accessed the site of the attacks. When US military strikes against Syria appeared imminent, Russian diplomats urged the world to wait for the UN inspectors’ report. But now that the report points clearly to Syrian government responsibility for the attack, the same officials are dismissing it as “politicized,” ”biased,” and “one-sided.”

UN inspectors were able to visit sites and interview victims and eyewitnesses, but it was not within their mandate to state explicitly who they thought was responsible. But they have provided substantial evidence of Syrian government responsibility, and that evidence is backed up by a 21-page research report by Human Rights Watch, an independent, nongovernmental organization......

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

The argument most used by those against the planned US airstrikes was that bombing Assad would “make things worse" and "kill more innocent people”. When asked for viable options to the alternative, most agreed that “doing nothing” was best since there “are no good guys in Syria”, including children. One infamous, yet seemingly popular, ex-politican suggested to “let Allah sort it out" as Assad continued to slaughter Syrians on a daily basis using conventional means.

Now, long after the ‘to strike or not’ campaign was resolved (so to speak), the world continues it’s debates over the merits of a UN report on the chemical massacre with no discernible goal. Even a part-time blogger, sitting from his home in the UK proved that only someone with the resources of the Assad regime could have carried out this attack, to think otherwise is fantasy. The Assad regime was not able to muster much of an excuse other than having an advisor to Assad, Bouthaina Sha’aban, claim that rebels kidnapped young Alawite children from Lattakia and then gassed them to death in Damascus. This story was used after the Assad regime denied that any chemical weapons were used at all.

So, just how much better did things in Syria get in the past 30 days? How did the “let’s do nothing” policy affect actual Syrians?

Monday, September 23, 2013

Rebel fighters inspect a stairwell amid fighting against Syrian government forces on Thursday, September 19, in the Saif al-Dawla district of Aleppo, Syria. More than 100,000 people reportedly have been killed in Syria since a popular uprising spiraled into a civil war in 2011. Russia and the United States have agreed on a plan to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons stockpile. The plan came about after a deadly attack in August outside Damascus that the West has accused the Syrian regime of being behind. Click through to view the most compelling images taken since the start of the conflict:

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria says democracy conflicts with Islamic teachings

It says rebels it ousted from Azaz, Syria, were cooperating with Westerners

Istanbul (CNN) -- Al Qaeda-linked militants justified their takeover of a strategic opposition-held town near the Syrian border with Turkey by accusing the Syrian rebels who held it of being pro-democracy traitors who cooperated with Western officials like U.S. Sen. John McCain............

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Syrian opposition groups willing to fight both the regime and al-Qaeda are worthy of Western and Arab support

With potential American strikes against Syrian chemical weapons-related targets averted for now, attention once again turns to the Syrian opposition. This is a crucial issue because the main way the West and the Arab states can, and should, act to influence the Syrian conflict is through a robust engagement with acceptable armed opposition forces.

As long as the Damascus dictatorship continues to enjoy impunity, air supremacy and unrestrained support from Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia, the existing power structure has no incentive whatsoever to look for an agreement, nor can it be forced into a de facto stalemate that can provide a modicum of stability.FULL ARTICLE HERE: Time to aid, not stigmatize, the Syrian rebels

Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, head of the IDF Military Intelligence research and analysis division, at a Foreign Affairs and Defense committee hearing at the Knesset in 2012 (photo credit: Noam Moskowitz/Flash90)

Israel has been “absolutely certain” for many months — long before the alleged August 21 chemical weapons attack that prompted the current Syria crisis — that President Bashar Assad was using chemical weapons in the civil war, the Israeli army’s top intelligence analyst said in an interview broadcast Saturday.

Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, the senior analyst in the IDF’s Military Intelligence hierarchy, said the Israeli army had an extremely effective intelligence-gathering capacity on Syria, but declined to go into specifics..........

Thursday, September 12, 2013

U.N. Peace Day 2013: Peace for the DR Congo

Editor's Note: Guest contributor Mac McKinney is human rights activist, deeply concerned about the horrific outrages to human dignity taking place not only in Africa, but in such places as Syria and North Korea. He has been long-involved in the maritime world, as a Navy Diver, shipyard employee and marine designer, but enjoys writing and photo-journalism, and travelled to Haiti to write a series of articles on the situation there.

I really didn’t know much about Congo until I met a journalist who had been there and told me about the ongoing conflicts in Congo. Soon after, I began delving into Congo’s history, studying from the Kingdom of Kongo to King Leopold II, who created the modern Congolese state with the chicotte and the Force Publique, building its foundations on human exploitation.

Reflecting on Congo’s violent past and present, I knew that it was wrong for people to suffer this much, and that I needed to take action. It is time to end the violence there and lay the foundation for a better future. Fortunately, the world is starting to wake up to this imperative, which was demonstrated in the signing of the “Framework” Agreement by 11 African nations in Addis Ababa in February 2013, creating a regional blueprint to end the bloodshed and bring stability to the region.

Eight months following the signing of the Framework, The United Nations International Day of Peace, Hampton Roads organization will host “Peace for the DR Congo” at Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, Virginia on September 21.

In conjunction with the One Love Festival also taking place on September 21, this year’s Hampton Roads U.N. Peace Day celebration is focusing on peace in eastern Congo as a way of doing our part to raise awareness about the ongoing conflict. Each year a theme for the day is established, and Congo was chosen this year as a result of personal reflection and education about the crisis.

The event will serve as an educational and cultural forum to discuss current events in the Congo as well as opportunities to take direct action.

Speakers and Performers include:

Reverend Carey Chirico of the Virginia Episcopalian Diocese ministry to the Congo, Women-to-Women

It’s not what Vladimir Putin’s New York Times op-ed says that’s so worrisome; it’s what it doesn’t say. As a Russian and as someone who has been to Syria multiple times since the beginning of the conflict to investigate war crimes and other violations, I would like to mention a few things Putin overlooked...

There is not a single mention in Putin’s article, addressed to the American people, of the egregious crimes committed by the Syrian government and extensively documented by the UN Commission of Inquiry, local and international human rights groups, and numerous journalists: deliberate and indiscriminate killings of tens of thousands of civilians, executions, torture, enforced disappearances and arbitrary arrests. His op-ed also makes no mention of Russia’s ongoing transfer of arms to Assad throughout the past two and a half years.

The Russian president strategically emphasizes the role of Islamic extremists in the Syrian conflict. Yes, many rebel groups have committed abuses and atrocities. Yet Putin fails to mention that it is the Syrian government that is responsible for shooting peaceful protesters (before the conflict even started) and detaining and torturing their leaders – many of whom remain detained – and that the continued failure of the international community to respond to atrocities in Syria allows crimes on all sides to continue unaddressed.................

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

U.N. inspectors have collected a "wealth" of evidence on the use of nerve agents that points to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad using chemical weapons against his own people, according to a senior Western official.

The inspection team, which is expected on Monday to present U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon with a highly anticipated report on a suspected Aug. 21 nerve agent attack in the suburbs of Damascus, will not directly accuse the Syrian regime of gassing its own people, according to three U.N.-based diplomats familiar with the investigation. But it will provide a strong circumstantial case -- based on an examination of spent rocket casings, ammunition, and laboratory tests of soil, blood, and urine samples -- that points strongly in the direction of Syrian government culpability......

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

A defecting doctor from Syria’s chemical weapon program gave a press conference on Tuesday to present evidence on the Bashar al-Assad’s regime use of chemical weapons in Aleppo.“I have witnessed cold blooded massacres [committed by the Syrian regime], and I coordinated with the rebels and documented these crimes before defecting in August 2013,” Dr. Abdel Tawwab Shahrour, the head of the Chemical Weapons Unit's Forensic Medical Committee in the Aleppo district, said in the press conference.

“We conducted tests on more than four thousand victims and prepared a file that contains the results we found that were submitted to the [Syrian] judiciary, while I kept another copy for myself..............”

Former Syrian Defense Minister General Ali Habib, a prominent member of President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect, has defected and is now in Turkey, a senior member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition told Reuters on Wednesday.

If his defection is confirmed, Habib would be the highest ranking figure from the Alawite minority to break with Assad since the uprising against his rule began in 2011.

“Ali Habib has managed to escape from the grip of the regime and he is now in Turkey, but this does not mean that he has joined the opposition. I was told this by a Western diplomatic official,” Kamal al-Labwani said from Paris.......

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

By Henry Austin and Alexander SmithNBC NewsMore than 2 million Syrians have poured into neighboring countries as refugees, the United Nations revealed on Tuesday.Around 5,000 people per day are fleeing the three-year conflict, which the U.N. says has already claimed over 100,000 lives.Olivier Laban-Mattei / UNHCR via AP, file -United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees special envoy Angelina Jolie, right, speaks with Syrian refugees in a Jordanian military camp in June.“Syria has become the great tragedy of this century -- a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history,” said António Guterres, the U.N.’s high commissioner responsible for refugees.

The crisis has dramatically worsened in recent months, according to the U.N.'s refugee agency.

Hassan Ammar / AP, file - A child sits on the floor at the Kertaj Hotel in Damascus, Syria, as her mother prepares a meal, in August. The family fled their home because of the civil war.

By Alexander Smith, NBC News contributor

Some 6.2 million Syrians have been displaced by the country's deadly civil war, the United Nations said Monday as the White House continued to lobby lawmakers to approve U.S. military action over chemical weapons.

Of those displaced, two million have fled across the border into neighboring countries, said Peter Kessler, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, quoting figures expected to be announced by the U.N. Tuesday.

Based on recent population estimates, it means between one quarter and one third of the country's population has been displaced........

According to opposition forces, footage reveals weapon used in assault US says killed more than 1,400 people on August 21

By Times of Israel staffSeptember 2, 2013, 6:57 am

Screenshot from an unverified video obtained by MEMRI purporting to show the origin of the chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb on August 21, 2013. And here is the direct link to the video: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/3963.htm

New footage obtained by the Middle East Media Research Institute purports to show the weapon carrying the chemical agents fired at a Damascus suburb on the morning of August 21, killing more than 1,400 people, according to US figures....................

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Sarin gas, the chemical weapon that Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad allegedly deployed against rebel neighborhoods in Damascus, is a vicious poison that attacks the central nervous system. Business Insider and the U.S. military report that the chemical has had a dark history since it was invented by German Nazi scientists in 1938.“Just a fraction of an ounce of this stuff, of sarin, on your skin could potentially be fatal,” said CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta in an interview Thursday on “Piers Morgan Tonight.” “It can be absorbed across the skin, it can be absorbed into the lungs, across the eyes. It’s pretty gruesome stuff.”“It is so indiscriminate. It is tasteless. It is odorless. You can’t see it. And, so you don’t even know that you’ve been exposed, necessarily, until you suddenly start to get sick. And then, it starts pretty quickly and can degrade pretty quickly as well,” Gupta explained.............

Pluto, the Planet of Evolutionary Transformation

Pluto in its highest astrological or symbolic aspect, in the Jungian sense, is the planet of evolution, urging us to be all that Nature and the Cosmos intended us to be. This is right in our DNA according to esoteric Yogic science and tradition, which teach that the actual energy of transformation lies dormant at the base of our spine.